Watch: Mum with terminal cancer warns all women to get a smear test

Cheryl Sheard had been 'too scared' to get a test and now has been told by doctors to 'make memories' with her families

With a heavy heart, Cheryl Sheard sat at the computer and put into words her worst nightmare.

Hitting the ‘post’ button - the devastating Facebook status suddenly became a reality - her cancer was back, and this time, it was terminal.

With her world shattered, the 35-year-old couldn’t help but think back to the dozens of smear test letters she’d been ‘too scared’ to act upon throughout her entire adult life.

Now the mum-of-two is urging other women to make sure they attend cervical screening appointments after doctors told her to go home and make memories with husband Gaz, and children, Anna-Louise, aged seven and Vinnie, two.

Cheryl, who lives in Dyserth explained: “I was first diagnosed with stage two cervical cancer on March 21, 2013.

“I underwent chemotherapy, 11 weeks of radiotherapy and internal radiotherapy and got the all-clear in June, but it took me a very long time to get my energy back.

“I went on an exercise referral scheme where I was sent to the gym twice a week to get me back on track. I’d been feeling great and started being really active, I didn’t feel like there was anything wrong with me.

“But during a three month check on March 21, 2014 - exactly one year to the day I’d first been diagnosed - I got the devastating news that I now have cervical cancer stage 4B which is incurable and inoperable.

Cheryl Sheard from Dyserth has terminal cancer

“The tumour is right in the corner of my body, it’s leaning on a main vein that’s feeding my heart.

“I got told by the hospital to just go home and make memories with my children and my family.”

She added: “I’ve been offered palliative chemotherapy purely to prolong my life for as long as they can.

“I’m due to start it this week but I’m going to lose my hair and it’s going to make me poorly.”

Cheryl said finding out she had cervical cancer in 2013 came like a bolt out of the blue, with no previous signs or symptoms.

“There was nothing wrong with me, I felt fit and healthy, everything was fine and then one morning I woke up and discovered I’d been bleeding,” she recalled.

“My husband kept telling me to go to the doctors, I put him off for a while but then I eventually went.

“The doctor sent me for a scan and they said it looked like fibroids. I was then taken into hospital while surgeons had a look. I woke up afterwards with tubes everywhere and then the following day they told me they’d found something suspicious in there that was 5cm big.”

Cheryl was offered curative treatment which tackled the tumour but not before the cancer had spread into her lymph nodes and moved further up into her body unbeknownst to her.

“The scary thing is, I’ve never been so healthy and so active in my whole life and then I’m told that I’ve got something inside me that will kill me and I don’t know when.

“How do you comprehend that? Getting my head around that is the hardest thing.

“Your world comes crashing down around you, it’s so unfair but do you know what? Life is unfair, but while I’m still here, I’m going to live it as much as I can.”

Cheryl is now focusing her energy on her family and has decided to speak out in a bid to make more women aware of cervical cancer.

“All my life, I’ve never ever been for a smear test, I was just too scared,” she admitted.

“I know it sounds silly but I just ignored all the letters telling me to make an appointment.

“Now I’m telling every woman I know to make sure they go for screening tests.

“One of my doctors said had I been for a smear test, my cancer would’ve been detected so if telling my story stops just one person going through what I am going through, then I’ll be happy with that.”

In the meantime, Cheryl said she is prepared to fight her hardest and not “hide behind” the disease.

“I’ve got to stay strong and keep things as normal as possible for the sake of my children.

“When I first got ill last year, we told my daughter that Mummy had butterflies in her tummy which were making her poorly and I had to have medicine to make them go away.

“We’ve told her that Mummy’s butterflies have come back again and we feel like that’s the best way to handle it for now because I lost my dad to cancer in 2011 and she associates cancer with death.

“We’ll deal with each day as it comes and try not to hide anything from her, but while I’m good, I’ll be sticking to my usual routine with the kids until the day comes when I’m going to have to tell them. For now, I just want to protect them for as long as I can and make as many memories as possible.”

Cheryl has already started making memory boxes for each of her children to allow them to look back on happier times, meanwhile she continues to remain positive.

“I wake up every morning and know I’m not facing this alone. I’ve got amazing family and friends and I’m so lucky to have such a great support network.

“I know no amount of love or money is going to change anything but I’m not going to hide behind my cancer and sit at home feeling miserable. I don’t want anyone’s pity or to see their sad faces.

“I know there’s not going to be a happy outcome so that’s why every day I don’t take anything for granted.

“I’m just going to stay positive and strong and face it head on and I’ll fight right up to the end.

“I’ll carry on living each day while I can and give my babies a squeeze every morning and night.”

Get involved

Cheryl's plight has sparked a fundraising drive in a bid to send the family on a “holiday of a lifetime” to Euro Disney in Paris.

Friends have rallied round to set up a fundraising page which has seen donations pour in from residents and businesses.

The drive is gearing up to a wild west-themed Yeehaw Family Fun Day at the Cross Foxes in Prestatyn on May 3 from 12 noon, where there will be a bouncy castle, bucking bronco, face painting, a raffle, disco and a hog roast.

So far, almost £3,000 has been raised for Cheryl’s cause.

She said: “Friends have set this fundraiser up so that I can take my children on a holiday of a lifetime and start making memories.

“It’s a sad situation to be in but I’m so overwhelmed and touched by the way everyone’s rallied around for us.

“I’m amazed at what’s been donated, especially from people I don’t even know. It’s so heartwarming. There’s such a long list of people to say thank you to.”

One of Cheryl’s close friends, Nicola Murphy said: “There’s been so many tears shed and so many thought of ‘it’s not fair’, but this is all about celebrating families and family life – it’s what Cheryl’s all about as everything she does is for the kids.

“From a horrendous situation, she’s got so much positivity, it’s an honour to know her, I’ve never seen anyone so determined and brave.

“Life’s too short and you never know what’s going to happen from one day to the next but it’s going to be a fun day, with no tears, we’re going to have a laugh.”

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The Editor

Mark Thoma

Liverpool-born Mark joined the Daily Post in January 2014 after seven years as editor of its Merseyside sister title the Liverpool Post. He started out as a weekly news reporter on Wirral Newspapers, and spent seven years at the Daily Post and Liverpool Echo. He was The Press Association's regional correspondent for North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire from 1983 to 1997, before returning to the ECHO as deputy news editor. He has won a number of journalism awards, including the UK Press Gazzette Regional Reporter of the Year award, and in 1993 wrote a book on the James Bulger murder.